Ibn Al Qayyim on Imprisonment
The journey of a person who seeks Allāh and the Last Day can only ever be put in order through incarceration.
He must put his heart in jail: confining its goals to the object of pursuit, and barring it from turning away.
He must put his tongue in jail: preventing it from speaking words of no benefit and constraining it to Allāh’s remembrance, to what will serve the increase of faith and knowledge.
He must put his limbs in jail: prohibiting them from sin and lusts, and instead restricting them to the obligations and recommendations.
The person must never leave this self-imposed prison until he meets his Lord. There, he will be released and transferred to a land that is free, unconfined and pure.
Anyone who is unable to bear this incarceration, and instead surrenders to his lusts and desires, will soon find himself imprisoned in the most terrible of jails upon leaving this world.
When a person moves on from this world, he will either be leaving a prison or entering a prison.
Success lies with Allāh.